


The Birthday Gift

by Narial



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine, Naruto
Genre: Gen, Group: ANBU Red Team - Freeform, Silver Queen's Dreaming of Sunshine Universe, WB: Frivolous Uses of Seals and Jutsu - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-01 09:45:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18797857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Narial/pseuds/Narial
Summary: Shikako gives a gift that keeps on giving.





	The Birthday Gift

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Charientist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charientist/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Dreaming of Sunshine](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/53648) by Silver Queen. 



Risshuu gathered his composure and knocked on Nara-sama’s door. Yoshino-san opened it, Kinokawa-chan balanced on the hip farthest from him, with an open expression and inquisitive quirk to her eyebrow.

“Uh, good morning Nara-sama, is Shikako-san home?” Risshuu blurted out, then took a purposeful breath and settled down.

Yoshino smiled, “Yoshino is fine, Risshuu-san. We don’t usually stand on ceremony.” Risshuu realized belatedly that he hadn’t introduced himself. “Would you like to come in?” She followed, “Shikako will probably be back before dinner.”

“Ah, that’s ok, I just wanted to pass on an invitation to Ritsu’s birthday party this Saturday.”

(Shikako had dropped Ritsu off at the academy once…apparently they had talked about exploding traps and a new game called replacement tag, and then the Aburame heir overheard during lunch and bonding shenanigans had ensued. Risshuu didn’t know. The other girls were all older than Ritsu and more energetic than she usually liked in her friends, but they had been invited too.)

“I’ll let her know; I’m sure she’ll come if she’s available,” Yoshino assured him.

 

I nodded and filed the information when mom let me know during dinner. The next few days were busy with an extended training exercise, but Friday found me browsing the night market with Ino as I caught up on the week’s gossip.

“It’s cute you’ve been invited,” Ino exclaimed, “What are you going to get her?”

“I don’t know…what do academy students even like? She’s too young for real kunai and supplies are useful but kind of boring…”

Ino shrugged. “I’m sure it’s fine, my cousins usually like flowers or gift cards to the Akimichi places. Oooh, or clothes.” She grinned at me as I made a face.

“Right,” I drew it out, then veered over to a colorful display and snagged something from the second row. “Lunchbox?” I said, holding up the bright box with a fawn surrounded by butterflies.

“Cute!” Ino approved.

 

The next day after sparring with Sasuke and getting lunch still left me with a couple hours before the party. I could work on my gravity calculations…I huffed. I was still having trouble conceptualizing it as a wave in spacetime instead of just accounting for the acceleration and calling it a day. That wouldn’t work because I _knew_ it was a simplification even though if I could just ignore that it would be _fine_. Or…my eyes fell on the lunchbox. Kinetic energy was much easier.

 

The party was a picnic, full of Nara cousins enjoying the sunshine and Academy kids bolting down snacks so they could play ninja. I got a plate before getting mobbed by Ritsu and Chiyako, Hanabi and Moegi following sedately behind with a trail of other kids coming to see what was so interesting.

“You came! Look! Chiyako, Moegi, and Hanabi let me practice smoke tags with them, and they _all_ came to my party!” I guess for a seven year old having older kids come to her party _was_ a big deal.

I handed over the present. Even if she couldn’t do any jutsu yet, “You’ve started molding chakra, right? Just push a touch of chakra from your fingers into the blue butterfly and it will get cold, or into the pink butterfly and it will heat up!”

One of the Akimichi girls in her class looked interested at that. Ritsu immediately went to the snack table to start trying it with a few pieces of daifuku and the other kids followed.

Saidai ambled over then and I shrugged, “It’s got a limited temperature range – it won’t get hot enough to burn or cold enough to freeze, even if she accidentally overloads it.”

He nodded. “We’re cutting the cake now – can’t have a party without cake,” he smirked, but his eyes were warm. 

 

Red team was dispatched to tactfully request a local lord stop irritating the daimyo by complaining about hosting refugees from Hot Springs. Tactfully meant, in this case, in such a way as to not implicate the daimyo or suggest ninja involvement. Scouting of the estate revealed no conveniently co-optable geographical features which could provide a reason to focus closer to home, but did reveal the lord had a mistress he kept only two doors down from his wife and regularly saw once most of the estate was asleep.

“Ideas?” Hawk asked once we had re-grouped.

“Arson in the carriage house?” Komachi suggested. “If he can’t get to the capital, he can’t complain to the daimyo.”

Towa just shrugged.

“Hmm, his wife is related to Shijimi-sama, right?” I asked. “That’s partly why he always gets an audience?”

Hawk caught on, “The mistress? He does seem to have successfully kept her hidden despite the proximity. But how are you going to force a confrontation?”

“It’s summer. I think I can heat the wife’s room enough to make it uncomfortable and wake her up at an opportune moment. She’ll likely step outside to get some fresh air, and that path is right in front of the mistress’s room.”

Hawk nodded, “Seems low risk, let’s try it. Towa and Komachi, can you scout and signal when the lord is on his way? Bat and I will time the wife’s wake-up to close to when he’s ready to leave the mistress’s room.”

Once we had split up Hawk asked how I planned to heat the room. “Fire chakra?”

“Too easy to accidentally set something on fire, and it can leave traces,” I responded. Not that anyone was likely to investigate with chakra sense, but it was better to be careful. “I made a seal that can gently heat the room.” A modified version of the lunchbox seal would be perfect for heating the bed and air. I explained the basics to Hawk and how I was thinking of placing two in the room for maximum effect while remaining hidden.

Hawk sounded exasperated and I just _knew_ he was raising an eyebrow at me. “You’re calling it the lunchbox seal, really?”

“Does it matter? That’s what it is.”

“Oh, never mind.” 

 

The fallout resulted in the lord being too busy placating his wife to travel to the capital and no pressure to favor the lord when he did return, which pleased the daimyo and gave the refugees a chance to settle in.

Tsunade was a little incredulous at how tamely the whole thing had been sorted out, but pronounced it a successful mission. “Bat, stay, the rest of you are dismissed.”

I tilted my head slightly once they had left.

“You can remove your mask.” Tsunade reached under her desk and pulled out an incongruously colorful box.

_Really?_ I raised an eyebrow. Why did _the hokage_ have Ritsu’s lunchbox?

The edge of her mouth quirked up. “ _Apparently_ , Ritsu Nara let one of her Akimichi friends borrow her lunchbox to show her parents. While there, the parent’s Yamanaka teammate asked to borrow it to transport a rare plant that needed to be kept cool to remain dormant. On their way back from delivering the plant, they were attacked and one of their squad lost a finger. They kept the severed finger cold in the lunchbox so it could be re-attached when they returned. The medical staff noticed the finger was in better condition than if they had kept it in a storage scroll since they didn’t have to revive the tissue before the procedure. They then requested the lunchbox for delicate organ transplants and have been badgering me for more ever since.” She pointed a finger at me. “Get it approved and I want ten for the hospital ASAP.”

I cringed. “Right, I’ll get on it.” I should probably make a new one for Ritsu too, now that hers had been used for plants and fingers and _squishy organs_. Eugh. On the bright side, I might be able to get away with making them all from animated lunchboxes.


End file.
